Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

[quote=weeksy ]IT's strange isn't it how you can go from hero to 0 over a couple of days, one day you're flying, then 2-3 days later you're dying a thousand deaths looking at your power drop and your HR that won't respond....

turbo broken again?

turbo broken again?

I meant his results/performance today. Mine, i'm waiting for 17:05 to see if i can not be completely destroyed by Muggo this time. Hopefully a course that suits me a little better today, along with the fact i'll be on the fast bike. If he blows me away on the kick after the bridge, i'll have to cry !

SO who's playing and when this week ?

I'm still deliberating on whether to try a race this week or to continue working towards basic endurance. I've three days this week where I've time to kill but not able to get out. Do I trash my legs on a short effort or get the (virtual) miles in.

Do both Piemonster! Race hard to deplete your glycogen and then carry on afterwards for 30minutes at Z2.
Your body will have little but fat left to burn so you'll get great results.

I've done several TR workouts now where they employ that tactic and it's the hardest Z2 I've ever done- as bad as the end of a 60mile outdoor Z2 ride.

I meant his results/performance today. Mine, i'm waiting for 17:05 to see if i can not be completely destroyed by Muggo this time. Hopefully a course that suits me a little better today, along with the fact i'll be on the fast bike. If he blows me away on the kick after the bridge, i'll have to cry !

Haha
I’m getting the excuses in early. My legs are still quite sore from a big ride on my MTB yesterday so can’t see me being able to go too hard tonight. Was even thinking about sacking it off and resting but as you’re in I’ll join in and give it my best.

So here's the results from todays testing. Turbo was warmed up and we did some bike testing.

Isaac, Conti GP4000, SPD-SLs
5:00 @ 200W in ERG
Max HR 119
Ave HR 115

Parkwood, Hybrid tyre flats
5:00 @ 200w in ERG
Max HR 130
Ave HR 123

Parkwood, ContiG GP4000, Flats
5:00 @ 200w in ERG
Max HR 123
Ave HR 117

Re-testIsaac, Conti GP4000, SPD-SLs
5:00 @ 200W in ERG
Max HR 121
Ave HR 116

Isaac, Conti GP4000, Flats.
5:00 @ 200W in ERG
Max HR 120
Ave HR 116

I'm happy that's concise enough as far as testing goes.

I could stick on the other Kenda tyre i recently bought, but the testing shows me that even with GP4000s, the Isaac is a chunk lower HR for me. So fitting a tyre in the middle of the two is still pointless, the Isaac is quickest/best/whatever.

A pleasing one is that i was the same on SPD-SLs and Flats, that helps as i wonder if part of my knee issue i sometimes get on the Isaac is down to SPD-SLs, so i can run flats now on it and know i'm pretty much exactly the same.

Unlikely to race now and will just call it an easy/gentle/recovery spin day 🙂

That’s music to my ears. I’ll definitely be on tomorrow around the same time though

All at the same cadence though??

Essentially yes. I was sitting 95-98 roughly on all bikes all sessions.

Ah cool as that can affect your hr for the same power.

So could you feel where and why the Parkwood was draggier/more effort? I assume it's just the tyre limit of 80psi??

I use my Stage which measures power almost at source but it shows why keeping your drivetrain etc clean and checking tyre pressure every time is essential for a Smart trainer- otherwise you are wasting watts 🙂

Yeah it was simply more effort, as soon as swapping to the GP4000 on Parkwood it span much nicer. But that was still a smidgen higher HR than the Isaac, only 2-3bpm, but still 2-3. The Parkwood feels more like you're using the top of thigh muscles more, even at 200w which isn't killing me, you can feel top of thighs noticing things more.

I pumped the hybrid up to 100 for today's testing. So pretty much the same as Isaac give or take the readings from pump.

Another interesting point was just how much doing things affect your HR, when riding along it was moving very rarely, only an odd beat up or down, but I'd grab a cloth, wipe some sweat and it's up by 3bpm more, that was where I got a higher HR on Isaac test 2, just a bit of movement outside of the norm.

Today it was the 09:10 WBR Flat race, but with very tired legs after yesterday's TT around a windy Thruxton. No time for a warm up but it was good to get a friendly message from blader1611 while waiting for the off. My usual slow start was almost to slow, I just about hung on through the tunnel and the climb from the marina. The two STW riders and one other were finally dropped approaching the end of the lap, but the thought of minus points forced me to sprint to close the 10 second gap to the lead group. Once there I sat in and tried to get around with the least amount of effort. I ended up finishing just 5 seconds behind the winner in 7th place and another 17 CVR points.

Zwift Masters race tomorrow, 10:30 and may be 17:30 if I have the legs.

Okay to hell with it, I'm going to attempt the KISS races this week.

Want to try and get to Elite on Zwiftrankings for reasons I'm yet to work out...

Anyone joining?

I did 30k of the 41k SZR joyride, had to stop to get ready for work. It was supposed to be an easy start with a slow build up in speed over the course of the ride.

It started out ok but the leader disappeared, presumably due to computer or internet issues and that was taken as an excuse by the group to speed up a lot. I and several others got dropped. Eventually another group formed and we caught a bigger group. After a rough start I wasn't feeling too bad when I had to stop.

I am feeling the effects now, probably two reasonably hard mtb rides on the weekend haven't helped. Not sure about racing this week. At the moment I don't feel like I have the legs for it.

Got to admit "Elite" cat does sound good. Can't do KISS tomorrow but I do need to find some bigger races later in the week and try to get some bigger scores.

trying for the 20.03 KISS B race tomorrow - see if the reverse hilly route's any better for a shit climber (though as usual, descriptions vary as to what the route actually is)

The app is usually correct and yep, says 4x Hilly reverse. It's survivable as a bigger rider until the last lap attack. Watch out for Innovation- they usually launch a flier from just after the bridge before the reverse KOM but not sure what you can do to counter it.

I'm going with the 16:05 WBR 4 laps flat today. Partly out of interest to see how i go compared to last weeks effort. Although of course, group sizes and pace can dictate speed a lot more or less than previous efforts. But i should get a reasonable idea what's going on with me.

weeksy - Member
I'm going with the 16:05 WBR 4 laps flat today

I was hoping to do the same, but woken up with a bloody bad back. Hopefully it'll ease off through the day.
I won't be impressed if I miss today as I was going to do one of races around 8pm last night and my wife talked me out of it. She was pretending to be sympathetic, but most likely she didn't want to listen to the hum of the turbo and my swearing while she was trying to watch tele.

Oh man.. i only entered that one as you had !

But admittedly, it's arguably the best ride from a planning perspective for my day, so no biggy if you're not in...But always nice to have some other STWer about when you're racing.

I should be ok for it.

CH can’t you just stick to their wheels? That’ll counter it for sure?

Z1/2 commutes for me today, no silliness like traffic light sprinting 😆 Then KISS at 8pm where hopefully I get a top 10 spot again.

Smashing... because based upon last week, my target is to hold your wheel for some of it... especially now you're a 3.0w/kg kind of guy ! I'll be making you work at the front for sure.

weeksy - Member
Smashing... because based upon last week, my target is to hold your wheel for some of it... especially now you're a 3.0w/kg kind of guy ! I'll be making you work at the front for sure.

Did I mention I had a bad back 😀

LOL you can mention whatever you want... 🙂 I'm tired and feeling old today... but we'll both give it a good go i'm sure.

Longer distance than is ideal in my world, but sod it, what's the worst that can happen 🙂

"survivable" sounds nice CH !

I'm not even that big, 78kg, just don't really have a hill sprint which often means dropping on the first hill. I think the hill is a bit further in to the lap this way round; it's the really early climbs that hurt most.

we'll see, hopefully. No way I'll be chasing anyone who makes a big break up the final hill though

78kg!!!! That's mountain goat territory 😀

Yeah, you will have course have a crazy start but then the whole of the tunnel to psyche yourself up for the reverse KOM 🙂

If it wasn't going to screw with all my data i'd love to have a pop in a C race hilly but at 75kg for example, just to see how the riding reacts on the flat/hills. It would be very interesting to see.

However, mostly pointless, as i don't see me getting to 95kg in the forseeable future, let alone 75kg lol

I've wondered about seeing what 70kg would feel like, too

damn, it's a slippy slope, this doping. EPO anyone ?? 😀

Longer distance than is ideal in my world, but sod it, what's the worst that can happen

As a 68kg guy who has only been cycling 6 weeks I can tell you the flat makes it really hard to keep up with the heavier more powerful guys, but the hills are really fun 🙂

I am tossing up between the zwift workout at 5.45 or the prs 3 lap hilly race at 6. Leaning towards the former as I need to do something to start getting my watts up consistently. I am also intrigued with the idea of everyone staying together regardless of watts out.

78kg 😥

If I could get to 78kg I could race in Category A! Unfortunately for me to get to 78kg I'd have to lose a couple of limbs 😀

In the majority i think i've got drafting down pretty well myself, i spend a VERY small chunk of races at the front, especially when we've got a few Bs or strong Cs.

The issue with that though is that you can miss attacks if they split the group and you're too far back.

Weeksy, why don’t you do it tonight but join me instead of the race - that way you can be my domestique and it won’t mess with your zwiftpower/CVR stuff 😆

Mmmmmm. Almond croissants for breakfast 🙂

Still can't work out why i'm nearly 100kg 😉

I'll put the power down to bridge the gap, and end up catching up and then flying past the group

Ha, yeh. I'm struggling with this one. Always seems to be too much or too little.

Regretted not checking the trains this morning. Lots of cancellations mean I needn't have set the alarm for 5am to get a ride in. Pah!!!

Mmmm, almond croissant. That's a brilliant idea!

I did the WBR four lap race yesterday evening, but got bumped out of the results because I'm not on a smart trainer - is that just an WBR thing or does this happen a lot?

I think my smart trainer is a bit basic and doesn't have this pedal feedback that I've read other trainers do, so when I slow the cadence down it drops too much hence dropping to the back. I've only really just noticed it since moving up to Cat C as I was generally riding on my own in D. So I reckon I'll get the hang of it with more practice.

Almond Croissant? what's with all this healthy foreign muck. Good old fashion British sausage roll from the canteen for my breakfast 😀

phil56 - Member
I did the WBR four lap race yesterday evening, but got bumped out of the results because I'm not on a smart trainer - is that just an WBR thing or does this happen a lot?

What Cat was that in ?

I did the WBR four lap race yesterday evening, but got bumped out of the results because I'm not on a smart trainer - is that just an WBR thing or does this happen a lot?

Did you have a heart rate monitor connected? I think WBR state that anyone not on a smart turbo without one gets DQ'd

Copied from the WBR race description

While TeamWBR wants to be inclusive, we also want to have race results that are robust and as fair as possible. Therefore certain rider setups will not be included in official Zwift Power or Cycligent Virtual Ranking results. All non-HRM or zPower will be DQ'ed either automatically or upon request by anyone who feels that it is needed. Many don't care, so they do not need to request, but if someone cares, they tell Frederic Jacquemin and the DQ is made.

Cat B, and I did have a heart rate monitor.

maybe someone reported you and the binned you then ?

Looking at the results in zwiftpower my weight is in a red box (as are a couple of others) Any idea what that signifies?